External RAID

I have a PowerMac G4 500 (Sawtooth). I am looking for an RAID unit. I would like the RAID unit to be external. Do I need a PCI card for the RAID unit? What software do I need to set up the RAID, if any, or will Mac OS X recognize it immediately? Anything else you can tell me that I did not think to ask will be appreciated.

I have a PowerMac G4 500 (Sawtooth). I am looking for an RAID unit. I would like the RAID unit to be external. Do I need a PCI card for the RAID unit? What software do I need to set up the RAID, if any, or will Mac OS X recognize it immediately? Anything else you can tell me that I did not think to ask will be appreciated.

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If you want a more complete/user-friendly RAID Software package try SoftRAID. There's a trial version of it available to test. It's at:

You can buy various PCI SATA cards that can have external SATA plugs, and a way to route the molex eternally. So you'd still have internal hard drives, but they could be sitting outside of the machine, if you're in to that sort of thing.

accusys makes a variety of internal and external RAID devices that can be connected via FireWire, USB, or SATA.

These are hardware based RAIDs, for no particular OS or software is needed. They come in RAID 0, 1, and 5 configurations, so depending what your pocketbook allows, you can choose.

If you want something a bit cheaper, you can get RAID5 software from FWB, or use the RAID 0 or RAID 1 features in OSX. These all will cause a minor to major performance hit on your CPU depending on what processor you use.

Finally, if you are looking just for cases ( SATA / USB / FireWire ), I have had particularly good luck with cases from bytecc .

These have been pretty reliable, and stack well. Pricewatch.com caries the FW versions for about $45.

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